By Michael Mayer Photos by Meri Simon The best of Friday’s bands from SXSW week: John Murry Murry’s appearance at SXSW was limited to a 30-minute show in a club away from the downtown madness. But he delivered a few… Continue Reading →

Murry’s appearance at SXSW was limited to a 30-minute show in a club away from the downtown madness. But he delivered a few of his emotional, heartfelt songs between expressions of misgiving for even being in Austin for what he thinks is an overcommercialized, anti-artistic exercise. Murry’s upcoming album, “The Graceless Age,” might make such self-promotion unnecessary. Its raw, powerful lyrics and Springsteen-like cinematic sweep already are generating raves in the United Kingdom, where it’s been out for a few months.

John Murry at Hole in the Wall in Austin.

Video of Murry performing “Little Colored Balloons”

Reignwolf

This Canadian kid, who now lives and works out of Seattle (real name: Jordan Cook), seems to have absorbed every heavy-metal guitar lick ever played and spits em back out through his own 21st Century lens. He opened the SXSW show at the club Peckerhead’s solo as he does most nights. From raging blues-rock solos to a version of Fleetwood Mac’s “The Chain” on electric mandolin, all while kicking a drum, he left dropped jaws throughout the club. Then out comes his brother on bass and a drummer and they knock out heavy metal that’s more tasteful than you imagine it could be. His prodigious playing is pretty much unrivaled in the current music scene, going one up on Dan Auerbach and Jack White.

Reignwolf (Jordan Cook) on electric mandolin at Peckerhead’s in Austin.

This Austin band is seriously under the radar. Led by a mad frontwoman named Sabrina Ellis, they play rambunctious power pop and Beatley soul. Ellis is so over-the-top great you can’t take your eyes off her, even though her bandmates are throwing out crazily infectious hooks. She’s part gymnast, part actress, part comedian, all while dressed in next to nothing. The band is barely known outside of Austin, but its new album, “The Importance of Being Jealous” may change that.

]]>http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/2013/03/22/you-can-stop-searching-now-these-were-the-very-best-bands-at-sxsw-part-6-featuring-john-murry-reignwolf-bobby-jealousy/feed/2John Murry at Hole in the WallReignwolf on mandolin at Peckerhead'sReignwolf takes to the floorSabrina Ellis of Bobby Jealousy